Alcohol Consumption

Which countries are the biggest drinkers in the world?

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Last year, we already looked in detail at the alcohol consumption in Europe. Recently, the WHO released new data for 2019. In this map, we’re going to use that data and look at the overall alcohol consumption in the world. The consumption of the alcoholic drinks, is measured in litres of pure alcohol consumed per adult per year.

We can see straight away that Europe consumes far more alcohol than other parts of the world. The global top 25 consists of 22 European countries. The only non-European countries in the top 25 are Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and the no. 1, the Cook Islands. On the Cook Islands they consume an average of 13 litres of pure alcohol per capita per year. Just behind the Cook Islands are Lithuania (12.9) and the Czech Republic (12.7). The Czech Republic is also the biggest per capita consumer of beer in the world.

The lowest per capita consumption can be found in the northern half of Africa and in the Middle East. There are 5 countries that have a reported alcohol consumption of 0: Bangladesh, Kuwait, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and Somalia.